Raw Cotton

[Charles Weathers]

I was in Arkansas last week just after they harvested the cotton. We were doing research in a field and I had some free time so I collected several bags of dropped cotton. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use it authentically? I thought some of our ladies could show how to clean it and spin thread.
I can't remember what the paddles are called that you use to clean and pull cotton.
Anybody know how to make cotton yarn by hand?
Any other tools I might need (preferably ones that I can make)? Thanks!

[Spinster]

Originally Posted by Charles Weathers

I was in Arkansas last week just after they harvested the cotton. We were doing research in a field and I had some free time so I collected several bags of dropped cotton. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use it authentically? !

Packing munitions--large cased shells were packed both in linen tow and in cotton

Originally Posted by Charles Weathers

I thought some of our ladies could show how to clean it and spin thread.
I can't remember what the paddles are called that you use to clean and pull cotton.

Cotton cards are used to detangle and remove small trash from the fiber AFTER the seed is removed. I've seen no records of hand ginning in the period, and local gins were fairly common.

Yes, you can hand gin with a steel rod and a rock, as is done in Africa today---again, a technology that simply does not match the antebellum period.

Originally Posted by Charles Weathers

Anybody know how to make cotton yarn by hand?
Any other tools I might need (preferably ones that I can make)? Thanks!

By this time period, spinning wheels are the dominant tool for home production of cotton yarn. You could use a supported drop spindle for the process, and make one yourself, but the technology is too dated for the time period.

Here's the good news--it takes approximately 7 folks hand carding fiber to keep up with one hand spinner. Get one wheel and one good spinner, and 7 sets of hand cards, and you are in business. Now, this is not a small capital outlay here--a good pair of cards will run $50, a good pair of PERIOD cards will be a good bit more. A good working wheel that will pass for period will be in the $300-$600 range.

Occassionally a spinner will have the gift of spinning right off the boll--this normally assumes far cleaner cotton than is left in the row debris after the pickers have run. Its is a showy skill, and one will worth learning.

Me, I don't spin cotton in public, because I can't keep my religion while doing so. Any fool can spin wool--a maxim I have proven repeatedly

[Charles Weathers]

Originally Posted by Spinster

Me, I don't spin cotton in public, because I can't keep my religion while doing so. Any fool can spin wool--a maxim I have proven repeatedly

Well that makes me feel better!!!

Thanks for the info, it gives me a jumping off place!

Most of what I collected I pulled right off the plants, the ones they missed at the end of the rows.

[mmescher]

If you have an abundant supply of the bolls, pass them out to the spectators and let them try their hand at pulling the fibers off the seeds. It is a very labor intensive task which can be used to illustrate the almost nuclear impact of the invention of the cotton gin (there is debate whether Eli Witney or Catherine Greene actually invented it).

You could use their labors to springboard into a discussion of cotton growing. With the invention of the cotton gin, fiber could be separated from the seeds with ease and, as a result, it became very profitable to grow cotton. But cotton growing and harvesting before the development of mechanical harvesters was labor intensive, fueling a demand for a slave labor force.

I won't go into it any further but you can probably think of a half dozen other threads it could lead discussion.

Michael Mescher

[Charles Weathers]

Originally Posted by mmescher

If you have an abundant supply of the bolls, pass them out to the spectators and let them try their hand at pulling the fibers off the seeds. It is a very labor intensive task which can be used to illustrate the almost nuclear impact of the invention of the cotton gin (there is debate whether Eli Witney or Catherine Greene actually invented it).

You could use their labors to springboard into a discussion of cotton growing. With the invention of the cotton gin, fiber could be separated from the seeds with ease and, as a result, it became very profitable to grow cotton. But cotton growing and harvesting before the development of mechanical harvesters was labor intensive, fueling a demand for a slave labor force.

I won't go into it any further but you can probably think of a half dozen other threads it could lead discussion.

Michael Mescher

Sounds like a good idea. Now I need to do some research!